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E 668 

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SPEECH 



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HON. LEONARD MYERS, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA, 



dp:liveiied in the house of representatives, 



MARCH 24, 1866. 



THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONGRESS. 



ACCEPTANCE 01 THE RESULTS OF TflE WAR TDE TRUE BASIS OF RECONSTRUCTION. 



LIBERTY REGULATED BY LAW THE SAFEGUARD OF THE REPUBLIC. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

PRINTED AT THE "CHRONICLE" OFFICE. 

186S. 






West. Ees, Hlefc. Soo. 



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RECONSTRUCTION 



The House, as in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, having under conHidorution 
the President's annual message — 

Mr. MYERS said : 

Mr. Speaker : We are passing through the most interesting period of Ameri- 
can history. No higher duties, no graver responsibilities, no prouder privileges 
ever devolved upon men than those which the American people have accepted 
and discharged in the last five years. Every attribute of manhood has been 
called forth l3y the struggle for a nation's existence, until purified by the ordeal 
we have risen in the scale of honor and of civilization. Happy in the arts of 
peace, treason's poisoned dagger found us unarmed. Yet to-day rebellion and 
treason lie prostrate, while the slave power, which for years sapped the founda- 
tions of our liberties, at last striking at tlie life of the Republic, learned, in its 
own dying agonies, that there is nothing so terrible as the wrath of a free peo- 
ple. I need not recount the story of these years of battle, when the rivers were 
reddened and the fields drenched with the blood of those who should have been 
brothers. The right has triumphed. Unsympathizing nations abroad have 
taken good heed of it. We are at this time the most powerful empire on the 
globe. Nor have I the time to signalize acts of heroism where all were heroes. 
The trumpet of fame will be broken when they are forgotten. Who shall tell 
of the unreturning brave, or sprinkle over their graves the sweet incense of a 
nation's gratitude? Unnumbered thousands of them went down to death, will- 
ingly as the bridegroom to the altar. But they died that liberty miglit live, 
and a Union preserved is their monument, imperishable as the eternal hills. 
What meed of praise, what public honors, what high rewards can suffice for 
their noble survivors, many of them maimed and crippled forever in this holiest 
of causes? Where shall the balm be found for those who sorrow, and like 
Eavhel, mourning for their children too, will not be comforted? 

We have been lifted out of the sordid and common-place into the generous, 
the lofty, and patriotic — the purest sj'rapathies cf our nature constantly brought 
into action. A world looked on amazed as courage unsurpassed, faith untiring, 
charity beyond bounds, and zealous love of country won for us the moral as 
well as physical victory. Childhood already girded on the sword for tlie con- 
ilict. The women were worthy of the women of the Revolution. As words of 
cheer from home strengthened the arms of our defenders, from camp and deck 
and battle-front their thanks were echoed ; while amid the very thunder of 
artillery the American soldier, still the American citizen, sealed with his ballot 
the verdict of the people, whose voice in this happy land has always been more 
potent than bayonets. 

The Representatives of the jieople reflected this overwhelming sentiment. 
The bolder their stand the more loudly were they applauded. They voted men, 



and as from tlie dragon's teeth in the olden mythology, or at the whistle of 
Roderick Dhii, men sprang up in every furrow and by every hill-side. They 
voted money, and laid heavy taxes to obtain it. The citizens gladly paid the 
taxes and took the Government loans, a million a day. The shafts of death 
thinned our armies, con.scription laws, at all times unpleasant, were received 
almost without a murmur, and througli the popular exertions rarely needed to 
be enforced. Generals failed ; amid universal acquiescense. Congress placed a 
lieutenant general over them who knew no such word as fail. It gave higher 
pay and bounty and pension for the soldier and sailor. It thanked the brave 
on all fitting occasions. With a President, whose name will ever be coupled 
with that of the Father of his Country, the Cabinet and national legislature 
faltered not in this trying emergency. In field and council, at home and 
abi~6ad, the people of the North wore true, and the boast of the Roman was not 
prouder than that of him who could say, " I am an American citizen" 

When I speak of the people I mean the majority. The right of the majority 
to rule is the principle underlying all our institutions. The rebellion was a 
rebellion against this principle. The overthrow of the confederacy is its triumph 
and vindication. In tlie North it continued to be respected. During all this 
bloody strife, however, a factious minority to the extent of its power clogged 
the progress of the national arms. The masses are always honest, but design- 
ing leaders, ambitious of power rather than false to their country, endeavored 
to misguide them. 

When the life of the nation was trembling in the balance, when nothing but 
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus could save it, these leadei-s quibbled 
less as to its necessity than as to wh^'e the power was vested. Abraham Lin- 
coln cut the Gordian knot, suspended the writ, and saved the country. The 
quibblers spent years denying that he did it constitiJtionally, although Congress 
had ratified tlie legality of the act. Reinforcements were begged for at the 
front ; the factionists denounced the draft and the enlistment of negroes, 
although these measures added half a million to our armies ; they opposed the 
soldier's cause ; they denied him the right to vote ; the}' voted to continue 
slavery. In a word, they clung to the slave power, asserted the war for the 
Union to be a failure, and when the cup of victory was at the very lips of the 
nat.ion would have dashed it to the earth. 

After the disastrous battle of Cannae, the Roman senate waited upon Teren- 
tius Varro, tlianking him that at least he had not despaired of the republic. 

What sliall be said of those who, in the fullness of our strength, when our 
arms were triumphant and our cause nearly won, almost paralyzed the public 
energies by despairing of the contest? 

The irresistible logic of events swept over them like an avalanche, and their 
posterity may be grateful if it has covered them with the waters of oblivion. 

With these exceptions, as I have said, tlio North was true. In the South, if 
loyalty existed, it was hid from us hy a wall of fire. 

Mr. Speaker, the war is over ; the spirit of the rebellion is not all dead, but 
armed resistance to the national authority has ceased. The sword has done its 
work, and the duties of statesmanship step in to perfect it. The Thirty-ninth 
Congress meets to consider questions of greater magnitude than have been pre- 
sented since the formation of tlie Governmeut. Tlie eyes and the hopes of patri- 
ots everywhere are turned to it. The telegraphic flashes of its discussions from 
day to day are eagerly scanned. By everj' hearthstone where there is a vacant 
chair — from every corner of tlio land where loyal Iiearts beat, North and South — 
the prayer ascends to heaven that all this blood and agony and sacrifice may 
not have been in vain, that the dreadful lessons of these sad years shall not 
pass unheeded ; above all, that those whom the people have chosen to legislate 
for them shall, in the great work of reorganization, be true to the principle.'^ 
which triumjihed in the contest, and see to it well that the germs of another re- 
bellion are excluded in the organic laws which arc to unite us again. 

And now, let us, as Representatives of a great nation, counsel together; for if 
we fail in our duty now the wrong may be irreparable ; if wo discharge it man- 
fully and justly, millions yet unborn shall rise and call us blessed. 



One great question ovcrshaxlows wLilo it includes all the rest. The eleven 
States which attempted secession are knocking at the doors of ('DUgress claiming 
immediate admission for those whom they have chosen Senators and Represent- 
atives. Are these States entitled at this time to such recognition ? 

And again, wlio shall admit or reject them? What are tlie grounds, if any, 
for their present exclusion, and what the conditions and qualifications requisite 
to secure them representation ? 

In determining this wliole subject, important as it is, we need no fine-spun 
theories. The law is so plain that he who runs may read it. A calm statement 
of the facts will suggest the remedy, solving any diiSculty. 

It is useless to discuss whether the rebel States have ever been out of the 
Union. Some stoutly assert that secession, not being legal, was impossible. A 
successful revolution would certainly have contradicted this idea. Again, if 
the people of South Carolina, dissatisfied with the Government, had all left her 
borders, only the territorial limits of the State would have remained. Tlie 
rebellion, however, failed, and there was no honorable liegira. These States 
and their people were all the time legally in the Union ; the triumph of our 
arms alone made them actually so once more. But one tiling all can agree 
upon. For four years these eleven States were beyond the national control. 
They defied the Constitution and laws of the Union. They set up a new con- 
stitution, anti-republican and founded on slavery. As States, so far as thej' 
could, they severed the bonds which knit them to the rest. They broke up 
their old State governments and erected new ones, and made new laws to suit 
the condition they were trying to bring about. Whether they were in or out 
of the Union is quite immaterial. Only three days before his death Mr. Lin- 
coln pronounced this " a merely pernicious abstraction." " We all -agree," said 
he, " that the seceded States, so-called, are out of their j^roper practical relation 
with the Union, and that the sole object of the Government, civil and military, 
is to again get them into that proper practical relation." President Johnson, 
in his annual message, tells us " their functions are suspended." I accept these 
definitions, and believe in them. 

A suspension of functions necessitates a restoration by some power, or the 
State, as such, will die. Who has the power to restore it? Some contend that 
the Executive has it, others that it rests with Congress. The solution is an 
easy one. The law-making power is supreme in this land, and except where the 
assent of the Executive aids in passing the law, his sole power is to execute it. 

Either the rebellious States could legally at any time during the rebellion 
have resumed their places in the Congress of the Union or. they could not. If 
the law then or now would have permitted it, then or now it could be done 
without order, direction, or authority from the President. The decision, then, 
rests either with these States or with Congress. 

No sane man will assert the monstrous doctrine that the confederacy could 
have kept its armies in the field and sent even loyal men to the Congress of the 
United States. War then makes a difference. The laws which were violated 
by foul rebellion cannot be held up as its shield. The parent authority, it is 
true, might have consented at any time to a restoration, and while the war 
brought no change of civil relations, was willing on a due submission to do so ; 
but the party who breaks the contract cannot set it up at his pleasure; and 
though these rebel States violently suspended their own functions, it is not for 
them, especially after failure, to declare the time and manner and conditions of 
their restoration. 

It is absurd to cite the resolutions we passed at the beginning of the war to 
induce these States to reconsider their folly. When yau can breuthe life into 
the nostrils, pour blood into the veins, and quicken the pulses of the hundreds 
of thousands whom their refusal struck dead, men may prate about promises 
and congressional resolutions based on their assent, but not till then ! 

At the outset of the rebellion the President of the United States, speaking 
confidently for the people, declared the Union was unbroken, that no plainly 
written provision of the Constitution had ever been denied, and pleaded elo- 



quently with the South against its contemplated withdrawal. State after State, 
in utter disregard of all entreaties, had withdrawn its Senators and members, 
and still refused to return them. The blow was struck, the war went on, slavery 
still lived. The President and Congress again and again urged a practical 
re-acknowledgment of the national authority that the war might cease and the 
South return with all their rights. Compensated emancipation was tendered 
them ; they laughed it to scorn. Their seats here and in the Senate Chamber 
remained vacant, while, at the bidding of those who left them, loyal blood still 
trickled down the mountain sides and the bodies of the loyal dead enriched the 
valleys of the South. At last forbearance ceased to be a virtue. Under the 
war power the President gave the people in revolt one hundred days' notice, in 
which time they were permitted to renew their allegiance without the overthrow 
of their institutions, especiallj'' inviting them to choose members of Congress 
in good faith and by elections in which a majority of their voters should par- 
ticipate. Tlie proffer fell upon dull ears and hardened hearts, and under the 
same power, on January 1, 1863, he issued the great Emancipation Proclamation, 
absolutely freeing the slaves, save in a few excepted localities. Engrafted 
afterwards by constitutional amendment, it verified the promises of the Declar- 
ation of Independence, and all over the Union forever prohibited property ia 
man. 

The red right arm of war at last had changed the political privileges which 
the South was so long, so constantly pressed to preserve for itself. Slavery 
was to rebeHion the heel of Achilles, and there it was smitten. The usurpers 
had staked their all on the hazard of battle. They bowed down before false 
gods. Rude iconoclasts, they broke tlj.o beautiful images of their loyal State 
governments, but the stain which marred their marble purity perished too. 
Nothing but victory could help them now. If defeated the United States might 
carve for them new forms of republican government, but the defect which 
their blinded vision loved would be omitted forever. One more chance was 
given them — not to restore these privileges — but to obtain terms of peace which 
might have secured them immediate representation. Abraham Lincoln even 
left his high seat for this purpose to meet their commissioners at Fortress Mon- 
roe. Separation or destruction was still their motto ! Then the Union armies 
moved upon theirs, breaking their columns, seizing their cities, driving thena 
along the valleys till they withered like a scroll, and in defeat and dismay 
surrendered to the majesty — ay, sir, I am happy to add to the clemency, of the 
Union. 

And now who will be so bold as to say that upon this surrender the rebel 
States could, of their own motion and on their own terms, re-enter the Ameri- 
can Congress? If so, let us look the fact in the face: no condition whatever 
could legally be imposed on them. In the prosecution of their attempt to break 
up the Government, they had contracted an enormous debt to their own fol- 
lowers, and to their sympatliizers in England and elsewhere. They could of 
right return and endeavor to make the nation pay it. The war power had 
struck the fetters from the slave, but the constitutional amendment was not 
yet ratified by the States. They might with propriety have refused to adopt 
it, claimed their seats here, denoun«ed the proclamation as invalid, and endeav- 
ored in Congress and out of it to render it a nullity. Ah ! but gentlemen may 
say they did neither of these things; they were put upon terms in these two 
matters. Yes, sir, they were ; and I thank the President that he forced them 
to do right, althougli they may even yet reconsider the repudiation of the rebel 
debt until the Constitution shall forbid it. But who could legally dictate these 
terms? And if such terms could be imposed, what can prevent Congress, th» 
law-making power, from determining whether other guarantees are required. 

Congre.'^s, under the Constitution, has the power to " declare war," to " sup- 

1)ress insurrections and repel invasions," yet in the view of some gentlemen 
lere it may not inquire whether war or insurrection has utterly caased ! It 
may "constitute tribunals," yet it has no right to be informed whether such 
tribunals are still closed and the course of justice impeded ! It can regulate 



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commerce " among the several States," as well as with foreign natioas, but it 
must not see if such commerce has been illegally restricted ! It may provWe 
" for the general welfare of the United States," but when that welfare has 
been violently assailed it dare not ask even whether the assaults npon its integ- 
rity, or those it is bound to protect, still continue ! " The United States sh^l 
guaranty to every State in the Union a republican form of government;" but 
after four years, during which all government recognized by the Constitution 
has been overthrown, woe be to Congress, the guarantying power, if it attempt 
to investigate whether republican government has been restored or now exist* 
in any of these States ! Oh, no ; Congress, with all its great powers, is limited, 
they say, to that section which makes each House " the judge of the elections, 
returns, and qualifications of its own members ;" and when, after four years of 
revolution and ruin, the member from Mississippi presents himself, Mr. Speaker, 
before you, if his election has been held at the regular time, if his return be 
duly signed and no one contest it, if with or without republican government, 
with or without loyal constituents, he is willing to be sworn, you have 
nothing to do but to swear him in, and we are powerless to make further 
inquiry. To state the proposition is to refute it. 

One word more on this point: It is said that such was Mr. Lincoln's view of 
the case. The opinions of that lamented patriot, written and spoken, are just 
the reverse. 

In order to foster loyalty, in order to end the rebellion by lifting up the hands 
of those who had strayed and were repentant, rather than by the dread wager 
of battle, Mr. Lincoln, on December 8, 1863, issued his amnesty proclamation, 
promising that when one-tenth of the number who voted for President in 1860 
should in any State re-establish a republican government, it should be recog- 
nized as the true government of the State ; and, not directing any election for 
members of Congress, he added : 

f " To avoid misunderstanding," * * * * "it may bo proper to further say, that whether 
members seat to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats constitidionally, rests ciclusively 
with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with the Executive." 

More than this, when the war was ended, in his last public speech, referring 
to the Government he had endeavored to set up and sought to sustain in Louis- 
iana, he thus alluded to the views above expressed, applying them, then and 
there, to that State : 

"And I also [in the proclamation] distinctly protested that the Executive claimed no right to 
Bay when or whether members should be admitted to seats in Congress from sttch States. This 
plan was in advance submitted to the then Cabinet, and as distinctly approved by ev»ry member 

of itr 

Mr. Lincoln's views, it will thus be seen, were precisely those now held by 
Congress, and the following paragraph from the Senate judiciary report, of 
February 18, 1865, accompanying the joint resolution relating to the credentials 
of members claiming seats from Louisiana — a report and resolution which gave 
general satisfaction — denotes how fully these opinions governed the last Con- 
gress ; 

"The persons in possession of the local authorities of Louisiana having rebellion against ths 
authority of the United States, and her inhabitants having been declared to be in a state of insur- 
rection in pursuance of a law passed by the two Houses of Congress, your committee deem it 
improper for this body to admit to seats Senators from Louisiana, till by some jo»n< action of both 
Souses there shall be some recognition of an existing; State government acting in harmony with 
the Government of the United States and recognizing its authority." 

But enough, sir, upon this subject. When the integrity of the Union was 
endangered by open and secret foes; when the land trembled with the shock of 
hostile forces, and timid men saw nothing but darkness in the future, the Gov- 
ernment was found to possess ample power under the Constitution to preserve 
itself against treason and rebellion. It has equal right, now the cloud is lifted, 
to protect itself against their consequences ; a protection which can be enforced 
only by law and afforded only by the power which makes the law. 

What, then, are the conditions on which any rebellious State shall be restored 
to reprcBentation in the national councils ? 1 answer, 



8 

That it shall conform by its constitution and laws to the change in political 
relations brought about by the war, accepting the issue in good faith, submit- 
ting to such acts of Congress, and ratifying, if required, such amendments to 
the national Constitution as fairly and equally embody the resialts of this great 
change. 

Certainly there is nothing very harsh in this. But Congress is to judge of 
these conditions, and nervous people, more anxious as of old about what they 
call Southern rights than careful of national security, fear it will do wrong. I 
do not believe that Congress will act unjustly. I for one am not afraid to trust 
the national Representatives. They come directly from the people. They 
mingle with and catch their inspirations from that source. The election.'? take 
place less than a year from the time they are first sworn in, and if they err, the 
people will fit in judgment on them. 

The creation of this body is the very essence of popular government. The 
Senate is only one remove further from the people. And this great republican 
idea, with a President coming too almost directly from the people, clothed 
with the veto power to check hasty or imprudent legislation, which on careful 
thought two-thirds May still overrule, is to me the most beautiful in theory, as it 
has been the most successful in practice, which the world ever knew. I cannot 
believe, sir, that either of these branches of the Government ivill willingly tres- 
pass upon the privileges of the other. I have faith that .each will act honestly, 
and in this crisis of the country will be no less true than heretofore to every 
right of the Government and the people. 

There is not a man in this House who does not desire the restoration of the 
functions of every southern State at the earliest moment consistent with the 
security of the whole. The Union was our watchword and battle-cry ; our pillar 
of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night ; our army was known only as fbe 
army of the Union. The great party which, rising above partisanship, prose- 
cuted the war to a successful close, was the party of the Union. From the first shot 
at Sumter, all over the land, prouder than orinamme or cresent, in every valley, 
on every mountain, from every window and house-top of the North, wherever 
our keels plowed the waters or the eddying waves of battle were the reddest, 
the flag of the Union floated in beauty, with not a star omitted on its field of 
azure. For this the conflict was accepted. For this the victory was won. 
This was the sacred trust we inherited, and the Union so admirably formed, 
cleansed now of its only blemish, we hope to hand down to the latest gen- 
eration. 

But several months have passed, and, terrible to relate, the Representatives 
from the South are not yet on the floors of Congress ! Still more terrible, their 
claims have been referred to a joint committee to report upon; and perhaps 
more terrible still, gentlemen here charge that they are denied representation. 
I assert that they have never been denied the right of representation. I kave 
said that Congress is to judge of the condition of these people ; but it is for 
them to show themselves ready for representation here. If there is delay, it is 
their own fault. 

Three months' delay ! Why, sir, I have been one of those most urgent for 
the reports of the reconstruction committee. I want the country to know that 
full justice will be done. I am anxious that each State shall bo found fitted 
for representation ; but when I remember that the regular Election Committee, 
with no evidence to take, has not yet reported upon several of its cases, I 
believe the country will not expect too much of a committee which has to 
consider the most delicate questions ever presented to Congress, and which has 
already reported several bills of an importance not to be over-estimated. 

Oh! but it is said, the committee is a joint one and revolutionary; it ties up 
the Houses to inaction. The Library Committee is a joint one, yet I never 
heard of its creating a revolution, even in literature ! The Printing Committee 
is a joint one, but thus far has not destroyed the liberties of the press! Each 
subject presented is referred to some committee, and is only acted on as it 
reports. Upon tliis important subject the committee was made a joint one, 



because it would be an anomaly to receive members from any State in thia 
House when in the Senate its laws were found to cause a delay in the reception 
of Senators, and vice versa. The Houses arc acting separately and respectively 
in this matter as in all others, joint reports only enabling them to present tho 
question more speedily and harmoniously. 

Admit each district to representation is the demand. Sir, it i.s the State 
which sends Senators, and the Legislature of the State which elects them. It is 
the State to which we must guaranty a republican form of government. It was 
by State conventions the people assembled to reorganize, not by districts. We are 
judging how far the work of reorganization is good. State lines are not oblit- 
erated, though the false doctrine of State rights is. The claimants from Ten- 
nessee, by memorial to us, tell how their State has been reorganized. They 
"submit that the said government is republican in form as well as in spirit, 
and they ask that the same be recognized and its perpetuity guarantied as the 
true and proper government of Tennessee;" not that they should be admitted 
by districts and our duties to their State shirked. 

And here let me say I hope the day is near when this recognition and guar- 
anty shall be given. Tennessee furnished thirty thousand gallant soldiers to 
the Union army, several of whom are elected to scats here. She was excepted 
in the proclamation of emancipation ; but one of the first acts of her Legisla- 
ture was to ratify the "constitutional amendment" by a unanimous vote; and 
while her functions, or those of any State fully organized before the vrar ended 
might be restored before a change in the basis of representation is finally ratified 
by the States, I believe she would adopt that too. She (as well as Maryland 
and Missouri) excludes rebels from voting till a term of years shall have natu- 
ralized, if not nationalized, them. Above all, her laws — so the committee seem 
to report — have accepted the issue of the war and embodied its results. 

I hope I have disposed of the question of receiving members by districts. 
But if gentleman desire to be technical — and I do not — if powers exercised 
with an honest purpose are questioned because the two Houses, the Congress, 
are doing what is contended each House should do separately, let me add that, 
from the insurrectionary States organized since the rebellion ceased, there has 
not perhaps been a single member elected to this House constitutionally, or 
who could take his seat if the Supreme Court, instead of ourselves, had to de- 
termine the question. Article one, section two, of the Constitution prescribes 
that — 

"Wlien vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Executive authority thereof 
shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies." 

If it be alleged that the southern members left by districts, and so may return 
to their places, I answer that the Executive of the State must issue the writs 
of election. If, on the other hand, as the President well says in his several 

{)roclamations appointing provisional governors, the rebellion " has, in its revo- 
utionary progress, deprived the people [of each State] of all civil government," 
such government must be established anew. The President directed conven- 
tions to be chosen by the loyal people in each such State, with authority "to 
present such a republican form of State government as will entitle the State to 
the guarantee of the United States therefor." Surely it cannot be that with the 
State laws not yet re-established, a convention may redistrict a State, or order 
elections for members of the national legislature. 

Yet in all of these States save one there was such haste to obtain power again, 
they could not wait till an Executive was elected, but the writs were issued 
under the provisional governors, and the elections ordered without law 6y the 
conventions. The North Carolina certificates are even signed by " W. W. Hoiden, 
Provisional Governor." In South Carolina the Legislature ordered the election, 
but there was no Executive to sign the law, and it cannot even be supported 
under their old laws, as the convention had redistricted the State. In Virginia 
fourteen delegates and six Senators, calling themselves a Legislature, not only 
changed the time of election for members of Congress, but assumed the duties 
which, under long-settled usage, belong only to a convention called for the pur- 
pose, and changed their constitution. 



10 

Tlie accusation of delay may be still better appreciated when I state that, 
except from Tennessee, Arkansas, and one or two from Louisiana, there are 
very few of those sent here who could take "the iron-clad oath" if the doors 
were thrown open to them. 

Is Texas denied representation ? Thus far no Governor or member of Con- 
gress has been elected in this State, where Generals Howard and Gregory tell 
us slavery still virtually exists. Her convention is only now in session. 

What of Georgia, which sends as Senators Alexander H. Stephens, the vice 
president of the confederacy, and Herschel V. Johnson, of the rebel senate? 
Her provisional governor telegraphed to the President, " No members of Con- 
gress elected can take the oath." Do we deny representation to her or has she 
paralyzed herself? 

And Mississippi, which, after electing as Governor a confederate major 
general, who was pardoned to enable him to take the office, passed laws so 
violative of equal liberty under the Constitution and equal right oefore the law 
that the President instructed General Thomas to disregard them? 

What of Virginia, which restored rebels to the right of suffrage, and whoae 
unjust vagrant laws, founded, too, on a previous agreement among the planters 
to keep down wages. General Terry had to set aside? 

How is it with South Carolina, whose Legislature, after repeated roqueata 
from the President to repudiate the rebel debt, took good care to adjourn with- 
out doing so, having provided that " persons of color shall be known as servants 
and those they contract with as inastersf" 

And Alabama, whose Executive is Governor Patton, the confederate cotton 
loan agent, and whose aristocratic and anti-republican laws, almost re-enacting 
slavery, among other harsh inflictions impose an imprisonment of three months 
and a fine of $100 upon any one owning fire-arms, and a fine of fifty dollars 
and six months' imprisonment on any servant or laborer (white or black) wbo 
loiters away his time or is stubborn or refractory f 

Can Florida complain? By an ordinance of the convention, adopted Novem- 
ber 4, 1S65, a vagrant in that State shall be punished by a fine not exceeding 
^500 and imprisoned for a terra not exceeding twelve months, or by being sold 
for a term not exceeding twelve months, at the discretion of the court; the 
convention, be it understood, the same week declaring that "slavery had been 
destroyed in this Stale by the Government of the United States," and no later 
vagrant act having been reported to us. 

Or can North Carolina? a State where General Duncan stopped the enforce- 
ment of laws "deemed an essential part of the old slave code," where the 
enactment of a code to protect the freedmen was made dependent on the with- 
drawal of the bureau for freedmen and refugees, and whose convention very 
naturally requested Congress to repeal the "test oath," for at least one of ita 
Senators and most of its members cannot take it. 

It is with no pleasure that I cite either the law or the facts against any of 
these States. I wish both were otherwise. What I have said has been by way 
of defense not attack. It will be a proud day when, their rehabilitation com- 
plete, the loyal Representatives from all of them can meet here, beneath the 
shadow of the old flag, remembering its glories, rejoicing in its triumphs, con- 
secrating it for the dominion of a continent in the future, and still unfolding 
its undymg promise to the oppressed throughout the world. When that time, 
I trust not far distant, shall come, pceans of joy will bo chanted all over the 
land, and the thunder from a thousand brazen throats, speeding over hill and 
prairie and river, will be echoed far across the sea, proclaiming in tones never 
again to bo mistaken, that American liberty and American union shall go hand 
in hand down the pathway of the ages. God speed the day ! But while it is 
a beautiful thing to be merciful, it is still grander to do right. Disloyal practices, 
unjust legislation, oppression, and wrong must not again be the stepping-stonca 
to power. These local governments, in their reconstruction, must be built on 
the eternal principles of right, or crumbling upon their own citizens, they may 
once more shake to tlieir foundations the very pillars of the temple of liberty. 



11 

The loyal men of the South, overborne during the rebellion and almost excluded 
now, demand it at our hands ; common justice, a common country, cry aloud to 
us to be true. 

We have been merciful. Never did a nation behave more generously. We 
fought for the flag, for liberty, for law, for the Union. There was no rancor, 
no vengeance, not even retribution, only a holy love of country, an unswerv- 
ing belief that our cause was just, that we were stewards for posterity and 
dared not betray our trust: that death was better than dishonor. Our merchant 
marine was swept from the seas by pirates, our prisoners were starved, guer- 
rillas murdered our stragglers, arson was plotted for our cities. We met bitter- 
ness with dignity. We told our wrongs only that civilization might shudder 
at them. Ascribing them all to the teachings of slavery, we cared for the cap- 
tives and still pleaded for justice in the name of liberty. When the insurrec- 
tion was crushed the rebels had little right to expect, and did not expect, to 
participate in the national councils for years. Their soldiers, brave in a bad 
cause, have no complaint now. Those who fought on either side understood 
tliis question fully. They felt the struggle, they knew what it was for, and 
neither side supposed that victory vieant defeat. Our kindness did not end here. 
We saved their cities from the torch applied by their own generals. Want 
stared them in the face ; high and low, every age, sex, and condition received 
supplies from the Union army. Desolation followed in the track of war ; the 
rebellion had brought enfranchisement for white and black, and this great Gov- 
ernment did its most generous deed in providing a bureau for refugees and 
freedmen, that these sufl'ering southern men and women, white and black, might 
be protected and sustained till the right to labor and to receive the rewards of 
labor should be recognized; until confidence restored and business flowing in 
its accustomed channels should render the department needless. 

The committee on destitution and supplies, of Alabama, reported to their 
Legislature that in January of this year the Freedmen's Bureau distributed 
13,000 rations per day ; " given alike to whites and blacks." In September last 
the assistant commissioner at Mobile reported rations issued on August 1, 1865, 
to 3,570 "destitute citizens;" the list in September standing, 1,742 person.'', 
"ninety-Jive per ce)it. of whom were rebels." The rations issued in January, 
186G, in Arkansas, were 59,532 to refugees, 11,696 to freedmen; in South Car- 
olina, 68,452 to freedmen, 4,563 to refugees. Mississippi, in February, received 
1,076 rations for refugees, 20,039 for freedmen. Kentucky and Tennessee, last 
August, 3,777 for refugees, 3,785 for freedmen. 

And all this time every beneficence of the General Government has been gently 
extended over the South equally with the North. The courts are open ; the post 
office brings us together once more ; the local machinery of the States goes on 
undisturbed ; trade and commerce are carrying new life to the southern capitals. 
With labor made honorable, capital and enterprise are developing the natural 
advantages and vast wealth of the South. We enact no differing code for the 
sections, but equal laws for all. If the military remain it is not our fault, but 
rather as a protection. General Grant says : 

" I diJ not nieot any onu, either tlioso holdins; places under the Government or citizens of the 
stfuthci-n States, who think it practicable to withdraw the military from the South at present. 
Tho white and the black mutually require the protection of the General Government." 

I appeal to the men of the South, from Tennessee to the Gulf, whether I have 
not spoken truly. If I have, their tongues should blister before charging upon 
us a desire to oppress, or to deprive them of their rights. The northern leader 
who does so, after full knowledge of the fact, is lured only by the thirst for 
political aggrandizement. His soul panteth after it " as the hart panteth after 
the water-brooks." To reach it he would strike down the blood-bought priv- 
ileges of the people and scatter to the winds the fruits of a victory which vindi- 
dated before the world the dignity of labor and restored to a great nation ita 
birth-right. 

Let us see, then, whether, meeting in a spirit of kindness and mutual trust, 
the ground I have indicated is not one upon wliich all can stand, President, 
CoNGEEss, and People. 



12 

The great change of which I have spoken is that from slavery to freedom. 
Slavery gone, its hiws, its prejudices and consequences, should be buried forever. 
We ara legislating for mankind. If there be wrong, now is the time to right it ; if 
there be defects, this is the forum in which to remedy them ; if doubts remain, 
the present is the hour to solve them. The craven may shift the responsi- 
bility, but civilization will hold us accountable for the performance of our whole 
duty. 

This change requires : 

1. That no law of any State lately in insurrection shall impose by indirection 
a servitude which the Constitution now forbids. 

If it be answered that the second clause of the amendment abolishing slavery 
gives Congress power to enforce this result by appropriate legislation, I reply 
that we do not choose to keep a standing armj^ in the future to enforce acts of 
Congress, when we can prevent such legislation by the States. 

2. That each State shall provide for equality before the law, equal protec- 
tion to life, liberty, and property, equal right to sue and be sued, to inherit, 
make contracts, and give testimony. 

Not one of the rebel States allows a negro to give testimony against a white 
man ; several impose punishments which differ according to the color of the 
offender. The second clause of the amendment asserts no power to remedy this ; 
but even if it did, or if the bill to guaranty civil rights under another section 
of the Constitution confers the authority, we are not compelled to meet at every 
step a conflict of jurisdiction, or punish innocent State officers for enforcing 
State laws which should be annulled. 

To these two propositions Congress has been earnestly addressing itself in the 
testimony taken by its committee, as well as to the condition and conduct of 
the people of these States. In order to be fully informed of their legislation, 
the Senate, on January 5, and again on February 27, of this year, requested in- 
formation of the President in regard to their provisional governors. On t!>:e 
6th of this month he transmitted a reply, and within a few days only this evi- 
dence has been published. 

But the war brought other results which should be embodied forever in the 
organic law by constitutional amendment. If not done now the golden oppor- 
.tunity will be gone forever. Congress has been conscientiously endeavoring to 
present propositions which will do equal justice to all, and forever settle the 
controversy. Two such amendments passed this House. As to the justice of 
one there is no question. The other in some shape will, I have not a doubt, 
prevail during the present session. One is to declare by constitutional amend- 
mend that no part of the rebel debt shall ever be paid by the United States. 

Who will object to such a provision? It is of no force to allege that the 
States have already declared those debts void which tho_v contracted in aid of 
the rebellion. What one legislature has done another niay repeal. The war 
debt of the Union must be sacred, that of the rebellion forever excluded. 

Let me on this point read the verj- excellent telegram sent by the President, 
November 5, 1805, to Governor Sharkey, of Mississippi, in relation to slavery : 

" Tlio action of the Legislature of Mississippi is loolsed to at tliis time with great interest, and a 
failure to ailopt the amcndnieut will create the belief that the action of the convention abolishing 
Blavery will hereafter by the same body be revoked. The argunv nt is, if the convention abolished 
elavery in good faith, why should the Legislature hesitate to make it a part of the Constitution of 
the United States?" 

Article six, paragraph one, of the Constitution provides that — 

"All debts contracted and cngagi-monts entered into before the adoption of this Constitution 
shall be as valid ag.iin;- the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation." 

It is as appropriate now to exclude an illegitimate obligation as it was then 
to provide for an honorable one. 

While I favor this amendment, candor compels me to say we may be safe 
without it. I hope it will be adopted. Yet, if every other guarantee were ob- 
tained, we might trust to the acts of the Legislatures in reference to this que.s- 
tion. But there is another amendment needed, involving a vital principle. 



which was partially yielded because of slavery, and should now bo reinstated. 
Under article one, section two, of the Constitution— 

"Representatives :nid direct taxes shall bo apjiortionod among tho several States whicli iii,«y bo 
included in this Union according to tlieir respectivo numbers, which shall bo dcttrniiiiod by add- 
ing to the whole iiumborof frou persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and 
excludiui; Indians not taxed, throe-fifths of all other persons.'' 

Every one knows that this three-fifths clause was inserted because of the ex- 
istence of slavery. It was only passed after much debate and heated discussion 
in the convention which adopted the Constitution; men like Butler of South 
Carolina, General Pinckney, and others, insisting that "blacks be included in 
the rule of representation equally with whites ;" the same Charles C. Pinckney 
who afterwards, in the South Carolina convention, urging the adoption of tho 
Constitution, said : 

" We determined that representatives should be apportioned among tho several States by adding 
to the whnle number of free persons throe-flfths of tho slaves. We thus obtain a rrprcstntaiion for 
eur property." 

Mr. Randolph " urged strenuously that express security ought to bo provided 
for insluding slaves in tho ratio of representation. He lamented that such a 
species of property existed ; but, as it did exist, tho holders of it wot-.ld require 
this security." 

On the other hand, Mr. King "thought the admission of them along with 
whites at all would create great discontent among tho States having no slaves." 

Gouverneur Morris " could never agree to givo such encouragement to the 
slave trade as would be given by allowing the southern States a representation 
for negroes," and did not believe Pennsylvania would agree to it. 

Mr. Gerry "thought property not tho rule of representation; why, then, 
should the blacks, wlio were propert}- in the South, be in the rule of represen- 
tation more than the cattle and horses of the North?" 

Mr. Wilson said " he did not well see on what principle the admission of blacks 
in the proportion of three-fifths could bo explained. Are they admitted as 
citizens ? Then why are they not admitted on an equality with white citizens ? 
Are they admitted as property? Then why is not other property admitted 
into the computation ? These were difficulties which he thought must be over- 
ruled by necessity or compromise;" and accordingly this "compromising expe- 
dient of ihe Constitution," as Madison terms it, this inequality, based upon 
wrong, was adopted, the same proportion entering into the basis of taxation. 
And so from the foundation of the Government tno South lias had this unfair 
representation in the national councils, to make up for which a direct tax, only 
collected a few times in our history, and which might well bo repealed or its 
basis changed, has been nominally imposed on thorn in the same ratio. 

Slavery being dead, it becomes us at once to alter the representation founded 
upon it. I ask it on behalf of the North ; in the cause of the Union, which 
should Hovor again be disturbed by a discussion of tho question ; in conformity 
with the representation adopted by tho southern States themselves; and I ask 
that an amendment embodying it may be pa.ssed by Congress, even if not rati- 
fied, before any insurrectionary State is again represented here. 

IT IS JUST TO THE NORTH. 

The whole number of Representatives in Congress is established by law at 
two hundred and forty-one. 

The South under the next apportionment must either lose this representation 
on thoe-fifths of the negroes, or gain two-fifths and mount to power on the 
whole. Unless tho ratio be altered tho South will gain twelve members ; those 
twelve members will be taken from tho number we now have, equivalent to 
twenty-four. If they are so gained, the vote of every white man in the South 
will be nearly equal to two at the North, and the rebellion will have produced 
for tho former more power than the arch-traitor Jefferson Davis, in his long 
years of plotting and fondest visions of aristocracy, ever compassed. Let the 
laboring man who has given his son to tho country ponder over this fact, 
and the Representative beware how he votes away the liberties of tho people. 



14 

IT IS FIDELITY TO THE UNION. 

C. C. Langdon, elected to this House from the Mobile district of Alabama, 
over his own signature, says : admit the twenty-two Senators and fifty-eight 
members from the South, "and tlie radicals cannot carry anything by a two- 
third vote." Yes, even under the present three-fifths representation, and 
without the gain which the next apportionment would bring, the radical Union 
men in Congress would he tied hand and foot by the representatives of those 
who, not manj^ months since, stood in battle array, as they had done for four 
dreadful years, against the banner of their country. Self-preservation dictates 
that for the sake of tiiat Union they strove to destroy we shall pass now what- 
ever constitutional amendments are needed. Admit these eighty " conservatives" 
first, and the discussion may as well be postponed indefinitely. 

IT IS FAIR, nONOKABLE, AND EQUAL FOR TEE SOUTH. 

Mr. Speaker, I want no law for the South that is not to apply equally i? the 
North. I hear a great deal about taxation without representation, -torth 
and South there are human beings who are taxed without being represented. 
I assert tliat we have no right to take advantage of our own wrong ; that 
where any class is excluded from the elective franchise we are not entitled to 
representation for such excluded class. I voted for such a proposition. I 
would be willing, that having failed, to adopt the proposition of basing repre- 
sentation on voters, counting all as voters who had once exercised the privilege 
and lost it by rebellion or crime, and waiting for each census to add that part 
of the foreign population which i'j continually drifting into a voting one. But 
6ome such alteration becomes a vital necessity. And why should the South 
complain? Mr. Madison, in No. 54 of the Federalist, arguing in favor of the 
three-fifths clause in the Constitution, says: 

"It may be replied that slaves are not included in the estimates of Representatives of ony q/ 
the Stales possessing tbem. They neither vote themselves nor increase tlie votes of their masters. 
Upon what principle ought they to be taken into tlie Federal estimate of representation 1 In rejecting 
them altogether the Constitution would in this respect have followed the very laws which have 
teen appealed to as the proper guide." 

And trying, as it were, to stem the tide, he adds : 

"Let the case of the slaves bo considered, as it is in truth, a peculiar one." 

Very well ; it is now alleged by the South that had the slaves been freed they 
would have been counted man for man in the basis. Perhaps they would at that 
time, for in nearly every State the free negroes then had the right to vote. They 
voted for and aided to elect a member of Congress in Tennessee as late as 1828. 
They took part in most of the State elections to the Consiatuirional Convention 
and the conventions to ratify the Constitution of the United States, and this 
argument would act as a two-edged sword. But be the fact as it may, certain it 
is tiiat in nearly every southern State the basis of representation for the State 
Legislatures omitted the important element of power which existed federally . 

The Kentucky constitution of 1799, by proviso reenacted in 1850, made 
"qualified electors" the basis; that of Arkansas, adopted in 1836, in force 
in 1861, " free white male inhabitants." The Mississippi constitution of 1817 
apportions representation according to the number of "free white male inhabit- 
ants;" the Louisiana constitution of 1812 upon "qualified electors," and it 
was not until 1852 that this was altered to " the total population of each of the 
several parishes of the State." That of Texas was based by the constitution " on 
thenumoer of free population." The Alabama constitution, adopted in 1819, on 
the " number of white inhabitants;" Tennessee, by her constitution of 1796, 
revised in 1835, on "qualified voters;" and that of Missouri on "permanent 
free white inhabitants." In Virginia, where the rule was reversed, the State 
was racked with dissensions arising out of the unequal representation afforded 
by slavery to the tide-water counties and those east of the Blue Ridge. Twice 
were conventions assembled, in 1830 and again in 1850, to remedy the evil ; but 
the slavery element was too powerful for the yeomen of West Virginia, who 



/ 



15 

received scarcely enough concessions to keep them from separation till the rebel- 
lion came. In the convention of 1830, Mr. Baldwin, expressing the bitterness 
U> which the contest had arisen, said: 

"The eastern people demand, as we are told, only security, not for their personal rights, but for 
their property, and it is granted by conceding representation according to fcdernl numbers in the 
Senate. They would sustain no pangs of humiliation by yielding to the basis of wliite population 
«n the House of Delegates, and would soon become reconciled to the compromise. 'What do the 
western people demand ? That equal representation which is to give protection not only to their 
property but to their persons, and place them upon an equality with the other freemen of the 
Commonwealth. l,et the principle of federal number.*, in whatever degree, bo introduced into 
both Houses, and the hardy yeomanry of the west will never bo satisfied. The final result will be 
a separation of the State." 

But this was during slavery. Since the shackles have fallen, however, these 
States persist in excluding from their basis of representation those whom they 
exclude as a class from political privileges. Tennessee, Missouri, Maryland do 
BO. Louisiana was restored to the white basis. In the late Alabama conven- 
tion there was a struggle to strike it out, but the mountains, ever the home of 
liberty, triumphed over the lowlands and retained the white basis. Even aris- 
tocratic South Carolina has abolished her rotten-borough system and advanced 
rapidly toward the right. Provisional Governor Perry, in his message to the South 
Carolina convention, well reminded them that " twenty or thirty voters in one 
of the parishes whose population and taxation combined entitle it to only one 
member in the House of Representatives have the same representation in the Sen- 
ate that three thousand voters have in Edgefield district. Now that slavery is 
abolished a reformation in this respect is imperative, and must by adopted." 

Surely what the South is doing at home cannot be far wrong when demanded 
here. Surely if the reduction in number of Representatives from the South be 
urged as an objection, the answer now is as perfect as in the early days of the 
Republic, that the States, small and large, have an equal voice in the Senate, and 
that the House of Representatives derives its joower directly /rom the expression 
of the popular will. 

In 1842 Andrew Johnson introduced the following resolution into the Ten- 
Dessee Legislature* 

" Resolved, That the basis to be observed in laying the State off into congressional districts shall 
bo the voting population, without any regard to the titree fifths of the negro population." 

Last October, in conversation with George L. Stearns, since published, he still 
spoke approvingly of the idea. If the same Andrew Johnson, now the Chief 
Magistrate of a great Republic, will give this or some kindred plan his support 
in this trying juncture, I believe it will pass Congress as an amendment to the 
Constitution and be adopted by three-fourths of the States in a few months, and 
then, sir, these insurrectionary States, having conformed to the laws as I have 
stated, I for one am in favor of receiving from them such loyal Representatives 
as they may send, and binding up every wound. 

I know that rebellion is still rife in the hearts of many of their people ; that 
the President still keeps the writ of habeas corpus suspended in the South ; that 
the militar)' cannot yet be removed with safety to its citizens; that the national 
airs are hissed, as was done in the theater at Mobile lately, the newspapers call- 
ing upon the general in command to forbid the performance of tunes calculated 
to annoy their citizens ; that " no steamer below the mouth of the Ohio flies 
our flag, no hotel in the southern cities spreads it to the breeze ; and on the 
21st of last month General Wood, commanding the department of Mississippi, 
was forced to issue an order that " the national flag shall be respected ;" that 
General Grant has suppressed newspapers in the South for disloyal sentiments ; 
that the gray there continues more fashionable than " the blue." 

This and much more might be adduced to prove that the " confederacy" is 
still odorous in the nostrils of the South. But I do not believe the southern 
heart can be changed in a day ; perhaps not entirely in a generation. 

With liberty and equal civil rights ingrafted by law and Constitution, accept- 
ing none who are disloyal, I am willing to trust to fraternity in the future. 

Distinguished men who now ask its exercise, I know, believe that power was 



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16 

013 744 676 5 

conferred originally in tlie Constitution to regulate suffrage in the States. Witli- 
out denying this, 1 assert that eontemporaneous legislation and uniform custom 
have been the other way. I know, too, that still others claim this right under 
the late amendment to the Constitution, alleging that freedom made the negro 
a citizen and a part of " the people of the several States," who, by section two, 
article one, of the Constitution, are to choose members of the House of Repre- . , 

sentatives. Citizenship alone does not give the rights of an elector. The negro 
was a citizen before his fetters were burst. It is true, however, that all civil 
government in these States, recognized l\y the Constitution, being overlurncd, 
reverted to the people. The whole people, 7iot the disloyal part of it only, had 
a right to be heard in its restoration. But this was not done. The President 
organized these, southern governments, leaving this element out, and as educa- 
tion is needed to give it htness, I am satisfied not to demand of the South a 
policy which my own State has not adopted, asking, however, of South and 
North, that a population excluded from voting shall not avail in any State for 
the purposes of representation. 

Some such plan as I have proposed — and I shall he glad to accept a better one — 
would prevent future rebellion against the Government and future wrong to - 
the citizen. I earnestly trust that Congress will soon be enabled to declare on 
what terms the insurrectionary States may have full communion with those 
which remained true and loj'al. • 

Indemnity for the past is impossible. The dead cannot be recalled to lifo. 
But security for the future is demanded; demanded by the sacred dust of the 
martj^rs for liberty ; demanded by the laboring masses South as much as North ; 
demanded by the widow and orphan, widowed and orphaned to gratify the 
unholy ambition of infamous demagogues whose treasonable crimes are still 
unpunished ; demanded by the maimed and diseased who sufl'er from the con- 
flict; demanded by every soldier and sailor who fought to preserve the Union 
won by the Revolution, guarantied by the Constitution, and now cemented 
once again and forever by patriotic blood. 

That once obtained, and it need not be a question of many months, the United 
States will present a spectacle of beauty and strength such as the world has 
never seen. Skilled in the art of war by the ordeal of battle, with a navy that 
has made us the astonishment of Europe, there is no fear of the future. Our 
commerce swells every sea and decks every shore. Science has wrought for us 
its choicest wonders. New manufactures invite. South and North, the energy 
and capital of our citizens. The land is " flowing with milk and honey." The 
mountains teem with mineral wealth. Broad, beautiful rivers, bearing rich 
argosies to the ocean — our veins and arteries — are met and crossed by bands of 
iron, fresh bonds and ligaments to unite us; shortly it is hoped to stretch from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

The wildest day dream of the enthusiast will soon be realized, for labor, 
vindicated and respected, has found its enduring home and will meet its just 
reward in the regenerated American Union. 



Chronicle print. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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013 744 676 5 



